maintaning a blue hippo tang

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

hey everybody i was wondering if anyone had some insight on blue hippo tangs , the reason im asking is because i purchased a small one at royal aqua world in brooklyn and it was fine for 3 weeks and then it died today i came home from work and found it dead in the live rocks, ! very sad to my kids but i cant figure out why it was fine and my ammonia is between 0 and o.25 a little but not too much and all my other fish are doing very well along with my star fish and snails , are hippo tangs very sensitve or could i have just bought a sickly one? any info would be greatly appreciated, as i would realy like to get another one.

 

[scapone]

Could of been sick even though there sensitive to parameters. I bought one same size he's fine and eats like a pig what were your nitrates?

sent from my HTC EVO

 

[pauliwalnuts]

What size tank do you have? They turn into beasts (eating everything before your other fish do)as they get bigger.

 

[THEDLO]

what were u feeding it?

 

[dubs]

what were u feeding it?

1+

 

[waynotcars]

There's really no way to say what went wrong. Could have been ill from the get go. What else do you have in your tank livestock wise? Was anybody picking on him and stressing him? I wouldn't start to worry about parameters and stuff too soon. Where did you buy him? Do you know and trust the LFS? Did you ask to see him eat before buying? They are usually pretty hardy fish when you get a healthy specimen.

 

[InfernoST]

Your tank is a bit small for tangs but in any case how long have you had the tank setup and what are all of your water parameters? Did you cycle the tank?

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

well hopefully i can answer all your questions, and believe me i appreciate the replies, i bought the tang after i hand picked him at royal aqua world on 65th st in brooklyn , they have alot of stuff but stay away from that mud bin they call live rock, lol all the other fish i bought from that place are doing wel except for a hermit who got mugged for his shell lol!!! my ammonia was a bit on the 2nd level but i turned on the air in my tank a bit and that has lowered it overnight, everything else is normal and im going through a brown spell as my tank is only going on its 3rd month its got all that brown on it but again i stress that snails and hermits are eating it up and its clearing up, i think its a mini cycle that started when i added live rock 2 weeks ago to rock i already had in there so after all this i only lost 1 fish.
the downside is that it was named dori just like the one in finding nemo so my son keeps asking for her, poor 2yo boy he misses his fishy, but maybe she was sickly but to be honest she ate like a bullet and it seemed a mystery to me, but i wanted to get some input from you guys b4 i went and replaced it, again i just started saltwater and am open to all given wisdom so the more replies the better off i will be, thanks again guys.

 

[JonnyJ]

The rock you added 2 weeks ago definitely created a cycle if you have ammonia present in your tank.

never add anything to the tank in the future unless you know it is cured.


ammonia is a killer

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

yeah i figured as much man, but i meant no harm i just wanted more rock, this sucks big time but you live and learn, by the way it was eating both mysis and brine shrimp nothing major, oh and that gel for of cyclopis

 

[THEDLO]

what did u feed the fish?! ive added rock to may tank month after it was started and i had not cycle issues, and the rock added was double what was in the tank.

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

hey jonny just out of curiosity how can you tell the rock is cured?

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

i fed it mysis shrimp and brine shrimp

 

[THEDLO]

i fed it mysis shrimp and brine shrimp

that why it died. it needed algae in its diet, it could have eaten like a champ but with out its main its main source of food it died.

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

damn i guess i killed it then! but i had put out algea strips cause the snails eat it and i guess it wasnt enough

 

[THEDLO]

damn i guess i killed it then! but i had put out algea strips cause the snails eat it and i guess it wasnt enough

it didnt eat it also? it might have been too scared. some tangs are skiddish and take a while to adjust to eating from the sheets. especially if theyre small.

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

nah this thig would collide with the clowns and steal from there mouth thats how fast it aint, it was not skiddish at all

 

[THEDLO]

nah this thig would collide with the clowns and steal from there mouth thats how fast it aint, it was not skiddish at all

so it just wouldnt touch the algea?

 

[e.muehlbauer]

Hippo tangs are very sensitive fish. If they don't get ich in their first few days, you've won the first battle. While I have found them to eat like pigs, the ones I have kept have not grown much. I've had some that lasted for a few years without major growth. My last one was a disaster....ate like a pig..Ulva, Gracillaria,nori, flakes, anything put in the tank. Swam around like a bloated little football...but it wasted away. Ended up like a potato chip with a huge belly in the middle before it died.

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

man that sucks, had a frontosa cichlid that died ust like that after a few years i cant say it doesnt bug ya to see inevitable death in your tank